UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Richard Stedman, Assistant Professor Of Rural Sociology In Penn State's College Of Agricultural Sciences, Has Received The 2004 Roy C. Buck Faculty Award In The Agricultural Sciences For His Article, "is It Really Just A Social Construction? The Contribution Of The Physical Environment To Sense Of Place."

The award recognizes the best refereed article published in a scholarly journal in the previous two years by an untenured faculty member in the college whose research involves the social or human sciences. Stedman's article was published in September 2003 in ''Sociology and Natural Resources,'' an interdisciplinary journal.

Stedman's article points out that present research neglects the potentially important contributions of the physical environment to place meanings and attachment. His long-term research interests include examining various human dimensions of natural resource issues, including environmental risk; the relationship between resource dependence and community well-being; and factors associated with the urban-rural fringe, including the capacity to manage natural resources such as wildlife and forests, and maintaining community and environmental quality in the face of rapid social change.

Other 2004 journal publications by Stedman include ''Risk and Climate Change: Perceptions of Key Policy Actors in Canada,'' which he co-authored with Debra Davidson for Risk Analysis magazine; ''Integrating Wildlife and Human-Dimensions Research Methods to Understand Hunters,'' which he co-authored with Duane Diefenbach, James Finley, A.E. Luloff and others for the Journal of Wildlife Management; "Forest Sector Dependence and Community Well-Being in Canada," which he co-authored with T. Beckley for Rural Sociology; and ''Understanding place attachment among owners of second homes,'' forthcoming in 2005 in American Behavioral Scientist.

Stedman received a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin in 1989, a master's degree in natural resource management from Cornell University in 1994 and a doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin in 2000.

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EDITORS: Contact Richard Stedman at 814-863-8644 or by e-mail at RStedman@psu.edu.

Gary Abdullah Office 814-863-2708 FAX 814-863-9877